Frontier North Trading Post board

I recently came to the conclusion that I really do need to sort out my own board for Star Wars Legion, so this project is simply about building up a decent 6’x3′ table with enough terrain to give a minimum of 1/4 coverage.

I wanted something that might work for other sci-fi games and didn’t want to go too specific on recreating a particular location.  Then I came across the Ancient Starport STL Kickstarter by Multiverse.  It is a nice set of Star Wars-esque buildings which fit the bill nicely.

Then before I got around to starting on the table, Multiverse ran another Kickstarter for a Repulsor land train.  Immediately sold!

Now I needed a mat…..

This is the Northland mat by Deepcut Studios. It reminds me a little of the scenes in Andor while they are preparing for the heist on Aldhani.

It also gave me the idea to carry over the light/melting snow onto the buildings.  I haven’t tried this before so it will be a new challenge for me!

The direction for the board is coming together.  I am building towards a frontier Trading post where a supply train has stopped off, set in a cold hinterland environment.  The train is going to be a substantial centre piece so the challenge will be picking features that work well around it.

I decided to start on a larger building with some scatter terrain.  This marketplace is probably going to be the tallest building on the table.

I decided to try out a blue-grey stone and to keep it fairly dark to hopefully help the snow effect show up.

The building was primed dark grey then heavily dry brushed Jetty Blue using Wilko’s tester pots.

The next coat was dry brushing Mineral Stone to knock back the blue a bit and add texture.

I then picked out random stones in Shadow Grey and Stonewall grey to add variety and sealed it.

The last step was to use Model Mates (also known as Dirty Down) Slate Grey and Soot black to wash all over and bring it all together.  Using damp tissue I removed the excess from raised areas.  Model Mates reactivates when wet so can be reworked as needed. I then lightly sprayed it with matte varnish to both seal and remove the glossy finish of the earlier laquer spray.

For the roof I decided to go with a terracotta sort of lookaand kept it fairly simple by layering up with these acrylics.

With the base colours on I decided I wanted an older, mossy look so used these greens and browns to darken the roof and weather it.

The final step was to use AK Interactive Snow Sprinkles effect paste to get my light snow finish.

And here we have it, the first building and test for the table, and a bunch of scatter pieces to spread out in front of it.

My brother has already printed off the Repulsor train for me and has started on the next structures so the project is well under way!

Bouncing between multiple things, here are some WIP pics of another two buildings and stone platforms.

I may have gotten a bit distracted and pressed on a bit without updates.  So here is the second building for the table!

A little building, but characterful!

I need more of these modular terraces, but it occured to me that they would make good train platforms.

Did I just trigger Lloyd with the T-word? 😉

The core of the table is this 3d printed Repulsor Train.  I am trying to create a scene of the train stopped at a trading post to load/unload cargo so need to integrate it into the surroundings a bit – hence the platforms and eventually enough cargo to scatter around the place.

This is what I have so far on a 6×3 foot layout (Star Wars Legion size).  I have about 25% coverage so it is hitting the technical minimum amount of terrain but I think it is lacking in light cover and scatter pieces to break up some sight lines.

So to do;

1. Finish the train cargo off.
2. Add some snow effect to the trees that have been sat in my cupboard for years unused!
3. More scatter. Crates, barricades, whatever.
4. More platforms to encourage units onto the train cars.
5. Add another building? Not sure if I need it yet.

I have now finished the train cargo so I am running out of stuff to work on until I can get my brother back on printing more stuff for me, which is sadly on hold while he has builders in the house.

But, I did get a game of skirmish Star Wars Legion in at the club with this stuff on a 3×3 layout.  The deciding moment was a duel between Darth Vader and Count Dooku on the train, I rolled extremely well so Dooku took another limb off Skywalker!  Then got taken down by Boba Fett, but I got the win anyway by pushing droids forwards faster than then got shot up.

My brother got his 3d printer back in action and has run off my wish list of pieces to fill out the table.

There is an extra building, a bunch more pieces to fill out my train platform/act as hills, a couple of ‘meeting places’ and a whole lot of cargo for scatter terrain.

Will I get it all done by the end of the spring clean challenge? Hopefully!

The last building that I plan on adding to the table (I may change my mind) is the Power Relay Station, yet again a 3d print from Multiverse’s Ancient Starport set.

I have not glued the sections together so the circular part could be used separately and I can take the upper floor away if I want lower cover.

I wanted to build out my options for a larger train platform/hill substitutes so have added another six platform sections. Having nine of these gives me a few layout options to tinker with.

These ‘meeting places’ are fun pieces that add both a bit of scatter and can be used to mark the take and hold objectives that appear frequently in legions objective cards.

Almost there! Just got some cargo scatter to finish up and the currently planned pieces for the project will be done.

Last thing on the current list, cargo crates scatter terrain.  So, unless I decide to come back and add anything the table is done. Just need to get a full sized game in it soon!